Compton's Hawkridge Distillers is flying high since picking up an industry accolade for best English London Dry Gin at the World Gin Awards

A Compton distillery has been flying high since picking up a leading gin award.

Over the past 18 months Hawkridge Distillers has gone from strength to strength, recently signing several distribution deals for its Hawkridge range overseas.

Its Blowing Stone gin was named the best English London Dry Gin at the World Gin Awards, considered one of the industry’s highest accolades in February last year – beating more than 900 other gins to the title.

The company – which is run by James Gurney, Phil Howarth and Robin Horrex – also picked up a number of silver awards for its bespoke white label products at the same awards.

“That’s really helped put us on the map,” explained Mr Gurney. “This year we were the Craft Gin Club’s ‘Gin of the Month’ for February, producing 130,000 bottles of our bespoke Valentine’s Day aphrodisiac blend Hawkridge Red.

“We are extremely proud to have been selected because there are only 12 London Dry Gins selected a year and you have got to have an amazing gin to be invited into the club. They try hundreds every year and reject many that they feel are not up to the mark.

“Our gin has been the most successful gin they have ever run too. Receiving top scores from 1,500 respondents.

“That was just magic and since then things have been crazy; it’s great.”

The distillers are now also looking forward to doing a Christmas special gin with the Craft Gin Club this year.

Mr Gurney said the business was really inspired by the support the community has given them too; having made over seven thousand litres of hand sanitiser, which they distributed free to local groups, charities and churches throughout the pandemic.

“Everybody we have supported has returned the love and started supporting us,” he said. “It has inspired a real sense of community; you give a little, you get a little and it has been wonderful to have been able to help, albeit in a very small way."

The company, which also runs its own ‘Just Gin Club’, has grown four-fold every year for the past three years, after starting as a hobby, and is looking to triple its turnover in the next 12 months.

And it is also working with some interesting clients, producing gins for the RAF and Army among others.

Rugby stars Mike Tindall, James Haskell and Alex Payne also collaborate with Hawkridge to create their Blackeye gin – which contains “the rarest secret royal ingredient”.

And with growing sales comes a growing workforce. There are currently seven full time members of staff working out of the Compton distillery.

It is hoped they will add at least three more to the staffing numbers by the end of the year.

And next year they will be moving to larger premises to accommodate their growing business.

It isn’t just gin Hawkridge are making now too, with vodka and rum also on the menu.

“We create our own triple filtered, double distilled vodka using a very secret technique that produces an insanely smooth vodka and will now blend our own rum, which we have spent over two years perfecting and searching for the best aged blends,” Mr Gurney added.

“We have also just signed a distribution agreement for our Hawkridge range in the US, which is an incredibly exciting step forward for us all.”